Coke-oven



(No Model.)

M. SANDFORD.

00KB OVEN. No. 399.634. Patented Mar. 12, 1889.

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llnirnn rates PATENT OFFICE.

MICHEAL SANDFORD, OF GALLITZIN, PENNSYLVANIA.

COKE-OVEN.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent N 0. 399,634, dated March 12, 1889.

Application filed December 2'7, 1887. Serial No. 259,115. (No model.)

To all whom it may concern;

Be it known that I, MICHEAL SANDFORID, a citizen of the United States, residing at Gallitzin, in the county of Cambria and State of Pennsylvania, have invented a new and useful Improvement in (Joke-Ovens, of which the following is a specification.

My invention relates to an improvement in coke-ovens, being especially an improvement on the conical coke-ovens now in common use, and known as bee-hive ovens; and it consists in the peculiar construction and arrangement of devices, that will be more fully set forth hereinafter, and parthiularly pointed out in the claim.

In the accompanying drawings, Figure l is a perspective viewof a coke-oven emliodying my improvement. Fig. 2 is a vertical longitudinal sectional view of the same. Fig. is a vertical transverse sectional. view of the same. Fig. 4: is a perspective view of the brick employed.

l-l'eretoto re in the coi'istruction ot' coke-oven s it has been the practice to employ bricks or blocks which are two and a half inches in width and thickness and nine inches in length, and to build the oven in the form of a cone, leaving an opening at the top, in. which. is placed a tunnel head, through which the charge is dumped into the oven. On opposite sides of the oven it is customary to build heavy stone walls, which serve to retain the earth in place that is packed above the oven, and the said stone walls impinge against the sides of the oven and lean against the sides of the oven to such an extent that a very considerable portion. of the weight of the walls is borne by the oven. Such a coke-oven is objectionable, for the reason, first, that the weight of the tunnel-head at the top of the oven exerts so COl'lSldQlEtblG a pressure upon the sides as to seriously impair their strength; secondly, owing to the small. size of the blocks or bricks used in the construction of the oven a great many joints are necessarily formed in the interior of the oven, to which the coke adheres, and, thirdly, the weight of the heavy stone walls on the sides of the oven tend to force the same inward, and when water is illtroduced into the burning mass of coals, to

extinguish the same before withdrawing the coke, the pressure in the interior of the oven, together with the great heat and the weight of the stone walls, freqnentlyeauses the sides of the oven to fall in, and at all times act so injuriously as to very seriously impair the durability of the oven and render it necessary to reconstruct the same once in three or four months.

The obj ect of my invention is to obviate the defects hereinbe'fore 1nentioned,and this ldo by the construction hereinafter described.

A represents the oven, which is provided with vertical front and rear walls, B C, and has its sides and top arched, as shown at D. The said sides, top, and end walls of the oven are built of blocks, E, which are nine inches in width and thickness and eighteen inches in length, the said blocks greatly exceeding the size of the blocks heretofore employed for this purpose, and thereby very greatly reducing the number of joints in the oven, and consequently reducing the liability of the coke to adhere to the sides of the oven in the same ratio.

At the top of the oven is formed an opening, F, through which the charge is dumped or poured into the oven, and, owing to the large size of the blocks which are employed, I find that I am enabled to entirely dispense with the. heavy tunnel-head, and thereby effect an economy in the construction of the oven, and at the same time gain the advantage of relieving the top of the same of the weight of the tunnelhead.

011 the front side of the oven is built a vertical stone wall, G, in which is an opening, II, that coincides with the door I of the oven. This stone wall extends to the level of the top of the oven, but does not impinge or lean against the front side of the oven, and hence exerts no pressure whatever against the same.

I have practically tested my improved ovens, and now have one of them in successful operation with a number of beehive ovens of the ordinary form, and I have demonstrated that my oven is very much superior to the beehive ovens, and that it is much stronger and is very much more durable. The bee-hive ovens which were constructed at the same time that my improved oven was built have been repaired several times, and now give evidence of such weakness as will soon render it necessary to entirely reconstruct them, while my improved oven, which has done the same work as the bee-hive ovens, is as strong as when originally erected. Moreover, the roof of my oven is sufficiently strong to bear the weight of a locomotive, and hence enables steam-power to be employed in drawing the cars loaded with coal over the oven to charge the same.

The ovens are built with their sides adj oining and supporting each other, and the edges of the stone walls in contact with each other. Earth or other suitable material is then filled in between the arches, and is supported partly by the stone walls, and a railway-track laid over the arches and intermediate filling. Then trains can pass over and dump the coal into the openings F. It is evident that this could not be easily done with ovens having dome tops, as a regular road-bed or trestle would then have to be built.

Having thus described my invention, I claim- The coke-oven A, constructed of equal-sized large blocks, having a laterally-arched top and a common feed and discharge opening in the middle of said top, and a door, I, in its front, in combination with the heavy stone wall 0, rectangular in shape, provided with a door registering with the door Lnot leaning on the front of the oven, and with its sides rising flush with the sides of said oven, so that when a number of said ovens are arranged side by side the side edges of said walls will be in contact all the way to the tops, and will support the earth packed between the arched tops of adjacent ovens, for the purposepf laying a railway-track thereon, substantially as specified.

In testimony that I claim the foregoing as my own I have hereto affixed my signature in presence of two witnesses MICHEAL SANDFORD.

\Vitnesses M. 'D. KITTELL, R. L. GEORGE. 

